Strange Bursts of Normalcy
by wombat-of-awesomeness
Summary: Because Jason had problems before he lost his memory, and we all know that Percy is always confused. NOT a Percy/Jason story! 3/9/13:Edited and updated to include Annabeth.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. I also do not own the phrases in italics at the beginning of each section. All of these wonderful things belong to Mr. Rick Riordan!**

* * *

_Jason has a problem_

"Ugh, why am I doing this again?" The son of Jupiter's voice echoed through the barracks.

Smirking in amusement, Jason's best friend and (hopefully) soon to be co-praetor entered the room to find the young half-blood with a tie knotted across his neck and shoulder. "How did that happen?" laughed Reyna, grinning at the obvious discomfort on the son of Jupiter's face.

"That doesn't matter!" Jason exclaimed over the girl's laugher, "Why can't we just wear togas for this?"

"As I told you earlier, only the praetors elected get to put on togas. It's symbolic." Snorted the daughter of Bellona as she began re-knotting the offending tie.

"Whatever, let's get this over with." Jason adjusted the tie after Reyna had finished tying it, and grabbed her hand.

Rather flustered, Reyna blushed, and walked briskly through the door.

* * *

_Piper has a secret_

Piper was not your stereotypical adolescent girl that much was obvious.

And because this fact was so apparent, Piper had developed a reputation as such. The girl was rather fond of this reputation; she typically did all she could to prove the people that thought this right.

That did not however, stop her from watching the press-conference of the boy who had supposedly blown up the St. Louis Arch, and his 'accomplices' and thinking exactly one thing.

_He and the blond girl would be adorable together!_ chirped a nearly non-existent voice in the back of her head, startling Piper back into real life. Where had that come from?

She was the rebel, the tomboy, the outcast! She was not supposed to be fantasizing about the relationships of criminals turned victims!

Shoving those thoughts to the back of her mind, Piper shook her head frantically and abruptly turned off the television.

She was not going to turn into one of _those_ girls, the ones that stood in the back of the room and gossiped all day. Never again, she decided, would she think like this.

In fact, it wasn't until four years later, when Piper was whisked into a world where those two criminals were heroes, did she think back on that day when she was eleven, and realize that her mom had been there all along.

* * *

_Leo has a way with tools_

"Whoa, how did you do that Valdez?" Leo's wood-shop teacher called from the back of the room. Leo wondered how drunk the principal had had to get to allow a bunch of 'special' kids around hammers, but he had to thank him regardless. Woodworking was the one class that he didn't bore him to tears and beyond.

"I'm a special boy sir!" Leo shouted his customary response from the other side of the room, just as he was putting the finishing touches on his clock. Said clock may or may not have included confetti that exploded all over whoever got within a foot of it, but from where the teacher stood, it looked perfectly normal.

Within seconds of finishing his project, Leo grew bored with the class. Strutting over to the newest hot 'delinquent' of the bunch, the son of Hephaestus slicked back his hair.

"Hey babe!" Leo called playfully. "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together!"

"Oh yeah," the girl shot back, "if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put F and U together."

Rolling her eyes and strutting away, the girl yelled over her shoulder, "Better luck next time Valdez!"

* * *

_Percy is confused_

"Wait, what?" Puzzlement flooded Percy's face as he furrowed his eye brows and glanced towards his mom.

"Once again, Annabeth is coming to the wedding, that's alright, isn't it?" Repeated Sally, while ironing a suit jacket and tossing it to her son.

"No, it's cool." The son of Poseidon ran his hands through his hair nervously. "I just could have used a little more, um, warning. That's all." Eyes scrutinizing himself worriedly in the mirror, he gulped. "Do I, uh, look okay?"

Faking a British accent, Sally laughed. "Absolutely dashing my dear, Annabeth won't be able to keep her eyes off of you."

Percy's face turned beet red, "Mom!"

"Well, it's true!" Sally laughed. "Come on then, I have to go get married!"

* * *

_Hazel is supposed to be dead_

"Are, are you sure this is okay?" Hazel asked nervously, face scrunched in concern.

"It'll be fine Hazel. Things have changed since you were last here." Frank comforted his girlfriend, knowing how uncomfortable she was.

"Yeah Hazel!" Leo popped in, "what are you so worried about anyway?"

The seven had stopped to get some dinner in San Francisco before starting the flight to Rome. As it had turned out, Hazel had not eaten in a fast food restaurant since they had risen in popularity. This was proving to be rather problematic.

"It's just," Hazel looked away, face red in embarrassment, "well, the world wasn't as fair then as it is now." Without further elaborating, Hazel quickly followed Percy to the table that he and Jason had picked.

Noticing Leo's still confused face, Frank sighed and elaborated. "Leo, what do you know about segregation?"

Face breaking out in understanding, Leo nodded slowly. "Oh, oh right, I'm so sorry dude, I forgot."

Smiling good naturedly, Frank smiled, "It's fine. I forget too you know? That she's not from this time. But usually it's little things, like not knowing what an IPod is or something."

"Hurry up and order you guys!" Piper exclaimeed from the front of the restaurant.

As Leo skipped off merrily, Frank shuttered inwardly. She was supposed to be dead wasn't she? That's what this all came down to.

At that moment, Frank realized something. She was supposed to be dead, but that didn't mean she was. And he'd be damned if he'd let that go to waste.

* * *

_Frank is a klutz_

_Try out for the soccer team _they said. _It will be fun_ they said. Well whoever 'they' were, Frank was never trusting them again.

Panting even as he got in the car, Frank greeted his grandmother, and then proceeded to relive the afternoon in his mind.

Everything had started relatively well. Frank had been able to run the required amount of laps, and his stamina wasn't all that bad. However, it seemed that that was the extent of his soccer related talents.

After tripping over not one, but two soccer balls while attempting to get in a line of all things, Frank had managed to kick the ball into the coach's face.

Needless to say, after about twenty minutes of similar experiences, Frank had kindly been told _that maybe soccer wasn't for him._

And you know what, that wouldn't have sucked as much as it did, except for the fact that every other person that had tried out had made the team.

And the best part? There were still three empty positions.

"How was the tryout?" his grandmother tried to break his silence.

"Let's just say that balancing practices with my studies will not be the issue that you thought it would be." Responded Frank, laughing bitterly to himself as he did so.

* * *

_Annabeth is terrified_

For once in her life, Annabeth was willing to admit that she had no idea what to do.

This was a perfectly normal date, right? Percy had taken her out to dinner plenty of times before, and they'd had a wonderfully mundane time during the majority of those dinners.

So why had Grover winked at her as Percy had led her past Thalia's pine, and why the Hades were her boyfriend's hands shaking?

Was she forgetting something? Sure the daughter of Athena had been buried in her studies the past few weeks, but Annabeth was almost certain that this wasn't an anniversary.

Was Percy getting sick? Maybe that was why he was shaking! And Grover obviously knew because of the empathy link and all, it made perfect sense! He was just warning her, that's all the wink had meant!

Turning to her boyfriend, Annabeth began, "Percy, I know what's going on."

"Oh gods," the son of Poseidon blanched. "is it that obvious? I thought I'd done a pretty good job of hiding it, really. Grover told you, didn't he? I knew I shouldn't have told him!"

"It's alright—" she began before her boyfriend cut her off.

"Might as well do it now if you know." He grinned, and proceeded to get down on one knee. "Annabeth Chase, will you marry me?"

Grasping for words, all Annabeth responded with was, "So you're not sick?"

* * *

**A/N: So yeah, I'm alive! I'm also capable of writing things that are not angst, imagine that! I've been suffering from extreme PMOAS (Pre Mark of Athena Syndrome) for the past few weeks, so please forgive my lack of updates.**

**In case it wasn't clear, all of these little parts (except for Hazel's) take place pre-TLH. Percy's part in particular takes place in between BoTL and TLO where I assume Sally and Paul get married.**

**If you have some time, I would really appreciate any feedback that you could give me!**

* * *

**3/9/13: So I updated this with Annabeth's section, as well as editing all of the others. Annabeth's section is obviously post series. Once again, feedback is wonderful!**


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